eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 0973-1245 2025-12-30 22 4 1475 1493 10.13005/bbra/3455 57250 article Evangeline Joan Arockiadoss 1 Shibin Ramchandran 1 Department of Pharmacognosy, Tagore College of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India. Morepen Proprietary Drug Research Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad., India. Drug repurposing is the process of trying to identify new therapeutic uses for approved existing drugs, which opens opportunities for development timescale shortening as well as early‐stage safety de‐risking. This review narrates the recent developments and challenges to drug repurposing in oncology, including translation strategies. We emphasize clinical examples, such as metformin (based on several randomised trials), propranolol (premature epidemiological and phase II proof) and thalidomide (FDA‐approved for multiple myeloma). Repurposing has clear benefits but the reuse courses are difficult to realize because of lack of biomarkers, intellectual property barriers, regulatory issues and complicated trials designs. We also describe computational strategies, such as signature‐reversal strategies interrogating from the TCGA integrative genomic resources. We conclude by delineating regulatory, economic and collaborative mechanisms that must be in place to achieve translation. This review offers current perspectives for biotechnological and clinical oncology researchers, and suggests actionable recommendations to sustain future repurposing pipelines. https://www.biotech-asia.org/vol22no4/drug-repurposing-in-oncology-progress-challenges-and-collaborative-pathways-toward-novel-cancer-therapies/ Drug repurposing; leukaemia; Novel cancer therapies oncology; Tumors